...can you give me some information on the plotline? I've heard a few conflicting stories, and the info on the IMDb page is way too vague. What war? Does it take place in the 60s? Anything you can offer, thanks!
shareReading the book, does that look too much like work?
sharePlease don't insult my intelligence. If you feel like sending me a copy I'd be more than happy to read it from cover to cover. My library doesn't have it and my current unemployed status doesn't leave a lot of spare cash around for Amazon purchases.
shareI sympathize.
A man from an upstanding family and an upstanding history marries a beautiful woman and they have a beautiful but shy child. This takes place during the Vietnam era, and as the child gets older, she starts exerting herself and her personality and it doesn't necessarily match with the ideal that her father has set up for himself and the image that his family "should" project.
It's a story about how nothing is what it seems on the surface, but the book is really beautifully written. If and when you can, I DEFINITELY recommend reading it before the movie comes out.
Thanks a bunch missfancypants! Sounds great, I can't wait to see it and hopefully find the book.
shareMost depressing book I've ever read. So depressing I decided not to complete it. Story starts out in my hometowm (Newark, NJ) at my high school (Weequahic HS), during the period I attended it (1945-49). Actually, the author Phil Roth was one graduating class after mine.
I was familiar with the locations in and the culture within the neighborhood of that period, and thought I would get extra enjoyment reading the story because of my background, but it was a real downer. I'll see the movie, especially if it is shot on location in Newark NJ, if only to see how it ends.
[email protected]
Considering the director "Phil Noyce" comes from a small rural community "Griffith" that has a history that makes "Twin Peaks" look mundane , I hope you perk up "sgm". In Phil's hometown the corpses are still missing.
shareWhat's happened to this movie? It was supposed to start filming a while ago- why nothing?
I really hope this movie gets made, because it is a superb book, and under Noyce's direction, it could be a real winner.
"Without you, I'm nothing"
I wonder if for time's sake the narrator's initial interwovenness with the story will be removed? Swede Levov is the character of this story; he carries it. I could see the film begining with the bomb explosion, and then darts around through time and through the relationships in Swede's life. One of the most powerful moments is Swede's phone conversation with his brother, Jerry, and Jerry's monologue in that scene is superb. I hope that remains in its entirety.
Also, to the former post: Does your library have some sort of hold/transit program where books are shipped, possibly for a small fee, among nearby libraries?
The fact that they are making this into a movie really scares me, American Pastoral is my second favorite book, I hope they don't ruin it. But for those of you who haven't read it yet, I would recommend doing so. Though it isn't an easy read, first of all, it is long, I think over 300 pages, and, if you've read anything by Philip Roth before, he is a slow read. But like I said, this book is amazing.
shareslow read sums Roth up!!
he describes things in a powerful way, but mostly through repition.
i thought id enjoy this book from the first couple of pages, seemed of interest...but now its moving too slow and im growing increasingly impatient
however i will carry on as its my English literature (though its american :os) text for A levels.
what did everyone think of the 'human stain'? good book? good film? any likeness to american pastoral in content?
P.s. to the user who wished the phone scene with Jerry and the suede to be kept in tact in the movie, what do they talk bout in the conversation? im not sure if ive read it :s
While depressing might be one adjective to use in describing Phillip Roth's masterpiece you might want to try the word elegiac instead. It is a broad masterwork on how life can come up short in so many ways despite seeming so bright to all looking in. Swede Levov is such an incredible archetype and the perfect "character" to builkd this remarkable story around. As I read the first hundred pages I was mesmerized and captivated Swede. We have all known a "Swede". Every school had a hero that we admired, that was just that much better or even profoundly better than us. An aspirational figure that existed as much in our imaginations as in our reality. This is the tremendously successful conceit that Roth uses to springboard his story through a dramatic shift in our society through this time. So while depressing it is it has an elegiac tone of a moment in time that has passed all too soon. Possibly the finest American novel I have ever read, no other book has ever shown me the sea-change that occured in this country in the 60's and how it stillr resonates today.
shareit's more of a tragicomedy.
The food I've liked in my time is American country cookin'-Colonel Sanders 🇺🇸
IMHO, I would suggest reading the book after seeing the movie. Movies rarely live up to great works of literature, which this book is. It's been considered one of the best books of the 20th century. It IS definitely worth reading, either way.
shareThe book is insightful on the sociopolitical dilemma of the 60s generation, but it's also a slog.
shareThe book is insightful on the sociopolitical dilemma of the 60s generation, but it's also a slog. The movie is a condensed version of that slog that gets to the point.
share"American Pastoral" is one of my favorite novels. In answer to your question, the story takes place in the 1960s during the time of the Vietnam War. The main character is a successful businessmen from Newark, an assimilated Jewish man (with Aryan good looks--that's why he's nicknamed "Swede" in the book) who looks like he has the perfect life--former beauty pageant queen wife, daughter, money, nice home, local fame, etc. But things go tragically awry when the daughter joins a Weather Underground-like group protesting the Vietnam War and the "Establishment."
Read the book before you see the movie.
dont read the book or see the film.
Phillip Roth was a one trick pony with Portnoys Complaint....he somehow got a career in letters from it.
I read this book and just wondered "why"
Why was this written ?
The Jewish diaspora is covered better and more comprehensively by other writers.
Roth is a Piker